Santiago de Compostela’s Praza da Quintana is not only a simple town square; located at the back of the Cathedral, it’ s one of the oldest and most historical squares of Santiago.

The Quintana is physically divided in two parts by a large staircase. The upper part is called Quintana dos vivos.

If you are at the top of the stairs and look down you see what is called Quintana dos Mortos and was once a graveyard. Go there in the middle of the night and you’ll be able to see the deads, at least that’s what the legend says!

During the years, Quintana dos Mortos has also been a marketplace and now is a large cobbled area delimited by the walls of the eastern side of the Cathedral, with the Holy Gate and the Royal Gate and by the base of the Berenguela clocktower; on the other side the square is closed by the massive wall of the San Paio de Antealtares monastery. Here you can see a huge marble cross, and not far from it a memorial slab with this words engraved:

IN MEMORY OF THE HEROES OF THE LITERARY BATTALION OF 1808. POSED BY THE SCHOLARS OF COMPOSTELA IN 1896 AND BY THE CITY IN 1822 1865 1866.

There is a romantic story behind this words: when Spain was invaded by the armies of Napoleon in 1808, many ran under arms to fight against the invader, including students of Santiago, who formed a battalion called “literary battalion”; the young soldiers carried a scroll containing a brief poem: “To rescue Fernando (King Fernando VII) and to put an end to Bonaparte, Minerva and Mars are united.”

The literary battalion fought in Galicia until 1810. When it was disbanded, the few survivors were all promoted to the rank of officer in the military corps.

Now, this is a romantic story of a fight for freedom; but if you look carefully, just above the slab, engraved in the stone you can read the name of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the man who in 1933 founded the “Falange Española” and died during the Civil War, shot by the Republicans; he now rests alongside the dictator Francisco Franco in the Valley of the Fallen, the memorial conceived by the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to honor the deads of the Spanish Civil War and that was partly built by political prisoners who trading their labor for a reduction in time served.

I don’t know why the Literary Battalion slab and the name of the founder of the Falange are so close each other, but this closeness is weird for me.

Plaza do Obradoiro is the stage of the daily ritual of the arrival of the pilgrims, who followed the Way of Saint James, and finally – after hundred and hundred miles on foot – turn around the last corner and are in front of the Baroque façade of the Cathedral.

On the left there is an arch where usually street artists find shelter from wind rain or (rarely!) sun: bagpipes, flute or guitar players, mimes and other artists. There is music almopst a little ‘everywhere around the square.

If you turn the corner on the opposite side of the arc, you go towards Praza da Quintana, another suggestive scenery made of stone between a fountain and a beautiful staircase.

Here usually the atmosphere is more peaceful and quiet. But surprises happen: a June afternoon that promises rain, from that side of the cathedral comes a music that seems quite different from the bagpipes and guitars buzzing around. Few steps and I prove myself I was right: it is classical music played by an orchestra. A whole orchestra that has found its place in Quintana dos Vivos and is playing: all the musicians and the conductor with the wand right in face of the steps of the Quintana, where tourists, enthusiasts and music lovers throng. The performance is good and engaging; just the acoustic could be better.

Baroque music bounces between the baroque façades of the square, and all around ​​an interested crowd of pilgrims, tourists and residents, all with their colourful waterproof, because soon it will rain. But the weather forecast just seem the least interest of the musicians, who continue undeterred to play under the stormy sky.